Days before Texas State officially joined the Pac-12 Conference, President Kelly Damphousse sat down to discuss how this historic move reflects the university’s ongoing evolution, how it will improve student life, and what it means for alumni and the future of research and academics at TXST.
Q: How does joining the Pac-12 enhance TXST’s national profile and why is that important?
A: The opportunity was to get into a group of peer or aspirational peer institutions in a way that would elevate the conversation about Texas State and that would increase the value of degree holders.
Athletics plays such a huge role in representing the university. You've heard it before: “Athletics is the front porch to the university.” Joining the Pac-12 amplifies the message about what’s happening at Texas State to a whole new audience.
When you are successful in athletics, it raises the profile of the university, and that increases the value of your degree. Let’s say you want to get a job in California, and you’ve got a degree from Texas State, and people are like, “What is Texas State?” In three or four years, people are going be saying, “Hey, we play you guys all the time!” The value of your degree is improved because athletics has risen to a certain level.
Q: How do you think joining the Pac-12 will change the student experience at TXST?
A: There was a time that if we had a non-conference basketball game with San Diego State, we would sell that game out. That's going to be our new normal now, where fans are going to be exposed to really good basketball, including Gonzaga once a year. And San Diego State, Utah State, Colorado State and all these are good basketball programs, along with Oregon State in baseball … The list goes on.
And we’re not just hoping that people show up and have a good time. We commissioned a game-day task force for basketball and football. We’re going to have a full-time employee whose job is to create game-day experiences that are unparallelled.
Students are going to see great teams coming in, we're elevating the game-day experience, and the student section is going to be the place to be.
I want this generation of students to be talking ten years from now: "Man, you know what's the most fun I ever had? Going to a basketball game, and the time we beat Gonzaga, the time we beat San Diego State, or going to the NCAA tournament, or going on a road game to Boise State for football and we had a great time.”
Q: In terms of academics, research, and overall mission, what makes the Pac-12 such a good fit for TXST?
A: Some of the schools are located in college towns, some of them are located in huge metroplexes, but they are all really high-quality academic universities.
There are five R1 research universities already in the Pac-12, and we’d be the sixth. The conference is making a concentrated effort to bring together the research officers at universities to look for opportunities for us to partner across institutions. The Big Ten has done this for years. We want to have the same kind of reputation where we are also an academics conference.
This represents a huge opportunity for us to partner with these institutions that are ahead of us in research trajectory.
As an example, they might have an interest in water research, but they’re all located on the West Coast and interested in the Pacific and intercoastal waterways. We’ve got an interest in water as well, and we’ve got access to the Gulf. We might find some kind of complementary approach to this.
Q: What have you been hearing from TXST coaches and student-athletes?
A: To a person, they say, "Bring it on," because they're competitors and they want to play against the best. And you should look at the recruits we are bringing in now, who are saying, "I’m going to play in the Pac-12!" That's part of our story now. There is the saying of, “Iron sharpens iron,” meaning if you win the conference in a great conference, that's really the test of your mettle.
Q: How will joining the Pac-12 help TXST travel?
A: When we played at Arizona State last year, it was packed with Bobcats. So, I think we're going to find Bobcats will travel when you've got good locations for them to go to and when you've got good teams to cheer on. And you get to go to Boise State and the blue field, or you get to go to Colorado State if you love the Rockies.
We’re going to play Boise and Oregon State two weeks in a row and I know a lot of people who are going to go to Boise and then spend the week up there, then drive up to Oregon State and watch the game there. We never did that before, so the fan experience will change because of who we're playing, where we're playing, and the kind of competition we're going to have.
Q: What kind of enthusiasm are you hearing from our fellow Pac-12 schools about road games to TXST?
A: Their coaches really want to come to Texas because Texas is one of the top three generators of professional football players, professional baseball players, and professional basketball players. And a top three generator of college football, basketball, baseball players as well as volleyball players and women's gymnastics. And so, the coaches want to be here for recruiting purposes.
The university presidents want to be here because many of them are in places where the demographics are not working in their favor. The number of college age students is declining, and everyone's looking at Texas because Texas is one of the few states where the numbers are actually growing. Many of them also have a lot of alumni living in Texas, so this is a rich development opportunity for them, as well.
And their fans are looking forward to coming to San Marcos. They’ve caught the bug.
Once a day, someone says to me, “I can’t wait to go to San Marcos! What restaurant do I go to? How far away are you from San Antonio? I’ve always wanted to go to the River Walk! I’ve heard about Sixth Street. And what’s this tubing thing I heard about?” I tell them come early. The game’s on Saturday, so come on Wednesday, go tubing Thursday, Austin or San Antonio on Friday, come to the game on Saturday and go home Sunday! You know the economic impact that has on our community, but think about the joy their fans will have when they come here and discover Texas!